In general, an engine compartment is mounted in front of a commercial vehicle such as a truck, and a cab in which a driver is seated is mounted over the engine compartment. In order to check various devices/components (engine, other devices, and the like) mounted in the engine compartment, it is required to inspect various devices/components after tilting the cab using a tilting cylinder. When the inspection is completed, the cab is returned to its original portion, and then the cab is locked to a chassis using a locking device for safety.
The cab for a commercial vehicle may be mounted to be supported and tilted on the chassis by a cab mounting apparatus.
The cab mounting apparatus for a commercial vehicle may be configured to connect the cab to the chassis, and to absorb vibrations transmitted from the chassis to the cab while the vehicle is driving, thereby improving ride comfort.
The cab mounting apparatus for a commercial vehicle includes a front mount that connects between the front of the cab and the chassis, and a rear mount that connects between the rear of the cab and the chassis.
The front mount includes a stabilizer disposed on the front side of the vehicle, a pair of front brackets fixed to the bottom of the front side of the cab, and a pair of connecting arms connected between the stabilizer and the respective front brackets.
Each connecting arm may be pivotally connected to the front bracket through a hinge bolt and a bush disposed around the hinge bolt. The bush may be made of a mixture of natural rubber, aluminum, steel, and the like. The bush may absorb relative displacement between the front bracket and the connecting arm, thereby preventing longitudinal movement of the cab, and absorbing vibrations transmitted from the chassis.
A pair of stoppers may be symmetrically attached to both left and right surfaces of the bush, and each stopper may be made of a shock-absorbing material such as polyurethane. Thus, the pair of stoppers may reinforce longitudinal stiffness of the bush, and prevent contact or interference between the connecting arm and the front bracket.
Rubber grease such as NIGLUBE® from NIPPON GREASE CO., Ltd. may be applied between the stopper and the front bracket, thereby preventing frictional contact and noise between the stopper and the front bracket.
As such, the structure of the conventional front mount allowing the pivotal connection of the connecting arm and the front bracket further includes the pair of stoppers and the rubber grease in addition to the hinge pin and the bush, and thus the assembly thereof may be troublesome and the manufacturing costs may be increased.
In the conventional front mount, the bush may fail to sufficiently absorb the relative displacement between the front bracket and the connecting arm, and thus it has disadvantages of failing to prevent the longitudinal movement and vibration of the cab properly, and of low durability.
The rear mount includes a rear bridge disposed across two side members, a pair of dampers disposed between respective ends of the rear bridge and the bottom of the rear side of the cab, and a pair of shock absorbers connected between the respective dampers and the rear bridge.
The pair of shock absorbers may be disposed on both left and right sides of the cab in a lateral direction of the cab, and thus be configured to prevent lateral movement and lateral vibration at the rear side of the cab.
However, the conventional rear mount uses a relatively expensive shock absorber, and thus has a disadvantage of high manufacturing cost. In addition, the conventional rear mount is not sufficient to prevent the lateral movement and lateral vibration effectively.